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The new mezcal offering under the Casamigos brand banner is coming into focus, as co-founder Rande Gerber told Forbes that the new label will debut on April 1 across the U.S., Canada, Australia and the U.K. at a retail price of $60 a 750-ml. bottle. Made with 100% Espadin agave from Santiago Matatlán in Oaxaca, Mexico, Casamigos Mezcal Joven is at 80 proof, packaged in numbered matte black bottles. Gerber added that Casamigos has more mezcal offerings in the new product pipeline.

Meanwhile, following Diageo’s purchase of Casamigos last year in a deal worth up to $1 billion, Diageo North America president Deirdre Mahlan tells SND that founders Gerber and George Clooney along with the rest of the existing Casamigos Spirits team continue to operate the brand independently.

“Given the incredibly fast trajectory of the brand, we want to have as little disruption as possible,” Mahlan says. “So it’s still being run as a separate unit and we expect that to continue for the foreseeable future. In the first half (ended in December), it grew about 70% in Nielsen and doubled in size in NABCA.” Led by its existing portfolio of Blanco, Reposado and Añejo Tequilas retailing at $45-$55, Casamigos neared 200,000 cases in the U.S. last year, according to Impact Databank.—Daniel Marsteller